Tokyo: Japanese retail giant Aeon Co. will raise the hourly wage of part-time employees by an average of 7 percent through the “shunto” spring pay negotiations in 2024, it was learned Sunday.

In the Aeon group, about 400,000 part-timers work at about 150 subsidiaries in the country. Aeon hopes that the wage increase will help workers hit by high consumer prices and make it easier for the group to secure and retain human resources, sources said.

About 80 percent of the group’s employees are part-timers, whose average hourly wage is 1,070 yen. The planned raise will boost the hourly wage by about 75 yen.

Aeon is also considering increasing pay for about 110,000 regular employees, including through regular salary raises and pay scale hikes. The company expects that the 2024 increase will exceed the group’s average of 4.85 percent agreed in the previous year’s shunto and approach the 7 percent level planned for part-timers, the sources said.

JIJI Press